2022

A lil 2021 recap: I started my masters, I burnt out, and then left my job right before Christmas. On the first day of my new student-ski-bum-life, I flopped over while skiing and destroyed my good ankle *ugh. After a bit of wallowing, I asked Kat and Scott if their guest room would be available in two weeks. They said yes. Decided to turn lemons into lemonade – and booked a six-week tip to visit Kat and Scott in Australia. Wahoo!

2022 was epic.

• Funometer: 10/10
• Sleepometer: 10/10
• Endless summerometer: 10/10
• Savings destroyometer: 10/10
• Emotionsometer: 10/10

I took 2022 to thoroughly enjoy being a student. I love being a student (most of the time). My master’s program is a part-time program tailored for people who are working full-time. However, a full-time job = 40 hours/week, and this program = 15-20 hours/week. It’s not sustainable. This program was expensive!! I felt like I was pouring part of the $30,000 down the drain and not taking full advantage of the opportunity. So, I decided to use my savings to invest in myself and work part-time instead, which gave me way more time, headspace and happiness. Yay!

Winter aka Summer #1: I went to Australia for some long overdue sister time (and best brother-in-law time). I wanted to meet all their friends and experience their life as much as possible. I told Kat I wanted to try Olympic weightlifting, so she found a coach to teach me and help with my ankle rehab. You can read about the trip here here here here aaaand here.

Spring: I was incredibly thankful to have more free time, because the school workload kept ramping up over the whole year. I started prepping for my thesis which involved interviewing different organizations to see who I could partner with. On the side, I set up my own solo-business and offered my first few paid negotiation workshops and consulting services. Kat and Scott came to Canada in my break between terms and we spent two weeks in Ontario visiting e.v.e.r.y.o.n.e. and one week in BC. Much fun! But exhausting.

Extended Summer #2: In retrospect, completely filling my short break between Spring and Summer semester was not a good idea. Summer semester was a ton of work. I also knew I wanted to get a part-time job. This is when I started getting involved with SORCA (Squamish Off-Road Cycling Association aka the mountain bike association). I originally approached them to see if they would be my thesis organizational partner. The first meeting went great.. so great that I ended up accepting a part-time Event Coordinator position for the summer with them. This job was soooooooooooo fun and I met so many lovely people. It was the perfect way for me to be introduced to the organization which has helped tremendously with my project. The whole experience has been truly incredible and I am ecstatic to continue with them, as a volunteer. It’s really filled a hole that I have been trying to fill.

In addition to all of that, I went to Victoria for my two week school residency. It was good and bad – very complex. I squeezed in my first two mountain bike races, some mellow cycling trips, and Lauren’s friends came to visit for a week. And then we went to Liz’s wedding in Ontario, with a short but very lovely stop in Listowel. Whewf! Sounds like that’s all that you can pack into a summer right? Nope. Turns out that the biggest event of my contract (SORCA’s 30^th anniversary event and end of year event) was the same time as my targeted master’s proposal due date. I worked multiple 60 hour weeks and turned into an angry computer monster. But, the event was super fun (video here) and my proposal was submitted on time. I was very thankful that the nice summer weather continued into September/October so I had some time to enjoy summer. Feels weird to be thankful for a drought. Hm.

In addition to the addition, I also started facilitating at SFU in the business school. I facilitated planning sessions and debriefs for a MBA Leadership simulation class (paid) and group leadership sessions for an undergraduate Group Dynamics and Teamwork class (unpaid).

Finally Fall: This fall was relatively more relaxed. I facilitated at SFU. I did a lot of athletics. I did my data collection for my thesis (a survey, a world café workshop, and a handful of interviews). I did research. I started my data analysis. I was planning on doing an internship with SORCA, but unfortunately the government funding was pulled back. I still did some contract work. Once Whistler opened, I took advantage of student life to ski during the week.

Overall, I have felt very supported this year and felt like I “put myself out there”. Quitting my job was a risk but I think it has paid off. I told myself I wanted to make more friends and get better at mountain biking, which I did. I also said that my #1 goal was to stay injury free AND I WAS SUCCESSFUL. I definitely struggled with a lot of things this year – academic reading, staying motivated, managing my self-expectations, committing myself to potentially too many things, feeling stressed about ~making the most out of this year~ etc. It is easy to look back and see all the good – my note to the reader and to future me is that in between all of these ‘good’ things there were a lot of ‘hard’ things too – which is normal!

This year I’d like to focus on these things:

• Find a job (or jobs) that focuses on learning, facilitation, leadership, training etc with a great mentor and with enough pay to….
• …have more sister and family time in July (BC edition) and visit Lauren’s family in September (UK edition)
• Start applying for post-secondary teaching opportunities and continue building my facilitation and public speaking skills, portfolio, and network
• Another injury free year!
• Decrease my attachment to perfectionism and make my self-expectations more kind…. So my first step towards that is I’m going to post this really long newsletter without obsessing over the grammar (even though I feel like I should), without pictures (even though I wanted to), without the answers to Natasha’s questions (even though I wanted to), and without Lauren’s question answers (even though I wanted to). I feel like I have even more to say, but I’m running out of time. Trying to believe a bit more that sometimes things don’t have to go according to plan.

One picture for the algorithm. Skiing with friends!

2021 newsletter

Happy new year What year is it Is it still March 2020 Hi

Overall, Lauren and I had a great 2021. I feel very fortunate and privileged to have had such a great year despite the pandemic. BC had quite a few travel restrictions, fire restrictions, landslide restrictions and gathering restrictions, but we were able to do A LOT of outdoorsy things locally.

At the end of 2020, I applied for the Master’s of Arts in Leadership program at Royal Roads and was accepted early this year. I started in June 2021. The experience so far has been amazing. I love being in a cohort program with so many leadership nerds. It really is leadership camp+! I am still adjusting to being in an Arts program; it is a lot more flexible than my previous courses. The first terms have focused intensely on personal leadership, leadership theory, systems thinking, communication and teamwork. I have learned a lot about myself through the past six months and I am excited to work and research more in soft skill development (consulting, teaching, development etc)!

Typically, there would be one in-person residency per year. The last one happened online however I am hopeful that the 2021 residency will happen in person. The residency was great even though I could not meet all my classmates. I have met up with quite a few of my classmates in Vancouver and have already established some strong friendships.

My work changed 2-3x this year which was quite stressful and difficult to manage with my master’s program. On one hand, it was the perfect experience to apply everything I was learning in school, but on the other hand, 40 hours of an ambiguous job situation + 15-20 hours/week of school + eating/sleeping/health + pandemic + life was extremely exhausting. In the fall, I decided that it was best to leave my role by the end of the year and have more time and energy to focus on school. Current Occupation: Grad Student

Lauren started a new job in June at a small machining shop in Squamish. He has been able to learn a lot and especially enjoys biking to work. This year, Lauren’s love for skiing has continued to grow. He spent most of the year skiing, biking, watching machining videos, watching skiing videos, watching biking videos and sleeping. A notable event of the year was when Lauren lost his ski at the top of a mountain and then successfully skied down 1500m with one ski. Lauren and Neil went back in the summer and GOT THE SKI. It was very exciting. Much closure.

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We decided to do a big three day bike trip in the Chilcotins in August which was our biggest most funnest adventure of 2021. As soon as we booked it, and my first of two ankle sprains healed, it was time to BIKE before the trip. I first signed up for a 30 day bike challenge in April where you had to bike every day for 30 minutes. That was a success at increasing my cardio but a no-success at back pain. For the record, I do not recommend doing the same activity 30 days in a row. In April and May, I also crammed as much ~relax~ as I could before June started. I slept a lot, trained a lot, read a ton of books, did outdoorsy things with friends, and went on a couple of small trips with Lauren and with my lady pack. And Jeff helped me build a desk!

Lauren in Pemberton

New desk fits juuuuuuust right

Liz’s photo

Liz’s photo

Liz’s photo

Em’s photo

Our trip in the Chilcotins with Jeff and Eileen was amazing. The geography of the park is like combining a Moab red desert with the Coast mountains. We took a float plane from a lower lake to a higher alpine lake and then biked out. The trip involved a lot of “hike a bike” (pushing your bike up the hill), ugh, but then riding down amazing, smooth alpine meadows. The weather was colder than expected so I didn’t sleep very well, but overall it was a great trip! Here are some of Jeff’s photos:

In September, I squeezed in a short trip to visit my dad, Diane, Mary Ellen, Paul, and Steph right after the bike trip. I was also pleasantly surprised to see Natasha! I had outdoor gatherings with Bill, Suzanne, Laurie and Helenka. That was nice.

2020 was a challenging mental health year for me, but 2021 was a lot better. Therapy, journaling, my leadership program, having a really supportive network, and focusing on all of my personal goals has increased my ~resiliency~ (however I would like this pandemic to be over tyvm)

Some other notable highlights:

• I recorded a podcast on negotiating and helped a bunch of friends negotiate higher pay. I finished my course but haven’t had time to publish it yet.
• In the summer, the temperature hit 45-50 degrees for a week. One day I swam in the lake for three hours without getting out!!
• It rained SO MUCH this fall. The flooding in BC did not affect us however the tweets they were sending out like “CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE EXPECTED” increased my cortisol levels
• I read quite a bit this year! Some of my faves were: Know My Name and Watermelon Snow. My favourite leadership books have been Dare to Lead, Leadership Challenge, The Advantage and Learning in Relationship.
  • Both Lauren and I tried to read Obama’s new book, but we only made it about 40% through. Lauren got to 60%. It is very thorough.
• I did very very little gardening
• Lauren got Instagram

OK I have really yammered on about quite a few things so I asked Lauren to answer Kat’s question “what were 5 really positive things that happened in the garbage year that was 2021”. He said:

• Got a new job
• A lot of skiing
• Lots of cool biking
• Spent lots of time with friends
• Learning new things (like industrial design)

“Our life is always awesome” (Brown, 2021)

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Skiing with Liz before ankle sprain #2

We got the last campsite. It was very slanty

Lauren on our spontaneous trip to visit David, Jack, Ginny, Peter, Leslie and Kyla on the island

Big bike ride for Max’s 30th birthday

So much ankle rehab

2020 newsletter

Happy new year, everyone. I am writing this post from my perspective (not both Lauren’s and my perspectives)

For me, 2020 was a year of personal growth.

I had a difficult early start to the year. Mike, our friend and coworker, passed away from suicide. I also had a lot of changes in my team at work. These two events hit me extremely hard. I felt so sad in January and February.

Even though it was a rough time, I knew the sadness would pass eventually. I started therapy in February and learned about how to better interpret and cope with my grief. I also learned a bit more about how I got through past grief. Grief is not linear and, frankly, super weird. In the summer, my coworker Andi passed away in a mountain accident. That was also sh*tty.

It wasn’t an easy couple of months. I had so many crazy dreams, way more anxiety than normal and one major panic attack. But I slowly learned how to communicate my feelings better to everyone around me. I realized how dang lucky I am to have a huge support network here out west. Thanks for always listening to us.

When the pandemic hit, I already had my support network set up. This helped enormously with my transition to working from home, my new job as a manager, Lauren’s lack of work etc etc. Working on my support network was not intentional – it’s just how life happened. But I feel very fortunate about the timing.

All the challenges I have faced since March have not seemed as bad as earlier in the year. I think I have been on the way back up since Mike’s death. I feel very privileged to have had an ok time with the pandemic so far. I recognize that others have had an extremely tough year.

The rest of the year has passed by in a blur, with some downs, but mostly ups. Here goes:

• We bought mountain bikes in April and have had a ton of fun exploring a new sport
• I had two minor bike-related injuries, oops (stitches and a dislocated pinky)
• Lauren didn’t work from March-August, but he had a ton of time to run and bike
• My work bumped us down to four days a week for the summer, so I had more time to bike
• We cancelled all our trips, but that meant we had enough money to enjoy our time off
• I stopped commuting which means I can sleep more, but I miss walking around between meetings
• We have still been able to see our friends quite a bit in the Squamish outdoors
• We played a ton of internet board games with Kat and Scott
• 10 of our friends moved from the city to Squamish!!
• I travelled to Munich in January and met up with Natasha in Amsterdam
• Lauren went on a skip trip to Rogers Pass in February and had epic conditions
• Lauren finished his Machinist Level 2 course
• We both go to cat skiing with work
• Lauren ran across the Garibaldi Neve in one day (45 km)
• We finally decoratedish our apartment

When our restrictions were lower, we were able to travel quite a bit in BC. We spent 2.5 weeks on Vancouver Island, mostly with my university friend Daniel. We went biking, went whale watching, went hiking, almost drowned while tubing down a river (sorry dad), drank many beach beers, and got two flat tires in the middle of nowhere. Daniel also took us in a Cessna and I got to ride in the front seat! We also met up with our friend Jane in Alert Bay. I cried when the trip was over.

There were many food highlights this year. Kevin made a tomahawk wagyu steak. He also taught me how to make rolled omelets. We grew a lot of potatoes and ate a lot of curry (Japanese-style, chickpea masala, sweet potato coconut etc). We ate Korean food every time we went to the city. Yesterday, I made siu mai!

I’ve applied for an online, part-time master’s program which I hope to start in June 2021. I hope I can finish and run the Negotiations course I am creating before that starts. I am also working on my cardio and bike fitness so I can ride up Lord of the Squirrels or through the Chilcotins this summer.

Ok this post is getting mighty long, but here are the lists that Kat and I always include:

• Good Books: Lab Girl, Search Inside Yourself, Leading Change, Worry Free Money
• Fun Board Games: Tiny Towns, Takenoko, I’m the Boss, Camel Up

2018 holiday letter

This year, I decided that we should answer our friends’ questions in our end of year blog post. Lauren agreed. Power to the people! Give the people what they want! Here we go…

What moment in the last year would you like to rewind back to and play again to reappreciate the experience? 

R: About a week after I arrived in Japan, I went skiing at Rusutsu Ski Resort with Mattias, Lindsay, and Jason. Even though it was early in the season, there was a ton of powder and no one at the resort. We skied until we, or at least Jason and I, couldn’t feel our legs. That day was pretty magical and I’d love for it to happen again.

L: Probably New Years. Jason and I went skiing up Mt Cypress and it was pretty fun.

What moment in the last year would you like to rewind back to and edit or erase?

R: On one ski day, I fell into a glide crack in Japan. In Japan, falling into glide cracks while you are skiing happens relatively often; the cracks are typically not marked or hard to see. But, this time, I was over-ambitious about my ski abilities and decided to go for it even though I probably didn’t need to.

L: I have no regrats!

What’s the best recipe you cooked all year?

L: South African peanut stew. [We typically do a hybrid of these two recipes: https://www.cbc.ca/food/recipes/oh-she-glows-soul-soothing-african-peanut-stew and https://pinchofyum.com/freezer-meal-spicy-sweet-potato-peanut-stew]

R: Laksa. [https://www.recipetineats.com/laksa-soup/]

Did you break any personal bests/records?  In what? 

L: I skied 2500 metres in one day at Phelix Creek with Jason. Every route and line was really good. We did a line called Return of the King that had a dodgy entrance with cornices. We were able to go quickly into the valley to get away from danger; the line had really nice snow and steep sections.

Lauren and Virginia skinning up in Phelix Creek

R: I climbed “Old and Serious” which was my first Squamish V3 bouldering problem.

What was your favourite thing you tried for the first time this year?

L: Machining as a job because I like making stuff.

Prototype 1: Block with hole

R: Canning! I canned twenty pounds of tomatoes this year. It wasn’t enough because we ran out in two months.

Approximately what percentage of your clothing is from Arc’teryx?

L: 98% from Arc’teryx, and the other 2% is underwear, socks and hats. And those were bought using a pro-deal. [Rosemarie thinks it’s more 85% Arc’teryx/10 % Pro-deal/5% Thrift Store]

R: 60% from Arc’teryx. [Lauren thinks it’s 60%, but slowly creeping up]

Our worst offenses of 2018:

G3 Ion bindings get hella jammed with hella snow

Taken by Steve at Julie’s place during Dad’s visit

As you carve out your life, what are the themes that are consistent from year to year? 

R: Experiencing different places, trying new things and learning.

L: Climbing, food, and generally being outdoors. [Rose thinks smelly footwear, increased noodle consumption YOY, and large coffee pots]

What are your core values?   

R: Y’all are a bunch of serious questioners! My core values are dependability, genuineness, and growth.

L: I don’t even know how to answer that? Maybe being outside.

All done. Thanks for the questions. This year was awesome! Here are my fave family photos from 2018:

Family at the UBC Apple Festival in October

Made by Danny – no explanation needed

mandatory reflection post

I always feel the need to write a reflection post after a big trip. Not sure why I feel this way, but I’m going to do it anyway. My thoughts after my time in Japan are:

• Travelling in Asia is less scary than I anticipated
• Asian food is yummy
• Japanese powder snow is nice
• Working in a restaurant with nice people is fun
• I want to go to Japan again (and again and again)
• I could live in Japan for a while
• Living in Japan for a while as a foreigner could be challenging
• Living in Korea also seems cool
• Japanese is hard to learn
• Japan has a large number of great toilets

Lauren finished his school program a week after I got back. We took a couple of weeks off and went to Whistler and Seattle. Now he is working as a machinist in a small shop. So far, he lurrrrrves it.

I just realized that Lauren is wearing the same sweater in every photo. How eco.

Not sure if I mentioned it previously, but I was laid off while I was on my leave of absence so I have been applying to work at a ton of places. I’m hoping to find something outdoor gear, health, food, sports, or tourism related. This month, I have been contracting for bumble bloom (a new vegan honey product) to help with their production and order fulfillment. I am writing this post as I wait for a lava cauldron of product to finish. I have listened to a tooonnnn of podcasts. I will be giving out samples at Veg Expo which may be a good time for me to network a bit more.

I/we have been busy with taco wednesdays, climbing, skiing, repairing the car, cooking in a clean kitchen, gardening and catching up with friends.

Lauren’s mama has been visiting over the last couple of weeks so we have done A LOT of touristy activities. Tomorrow, we are going whale watching.

ttt2018

Great trips always have a name. Like “10 Year Reunion Cruise!” or “Great Road Trip of 2015!”. My trip in Tokyo went through many different names:

Last Week in Japan

At first, I had no plans about what to do in my last week in Japan. I was going to go with the flow.

Okutama Climbing Trip

Kyle booked his flights to Japan and some of my friends in Niseko decided that they want to go climbing and camping as well in the Okutama region. Sugoi! Kyle is our buddy that Lauren and I met in our training course a couple of years back.

Terrace House Fan Tour + Okutama Climbing Trip

Kyle and I decided that we actually had quite a few things we wanted to see in Tokyo, so we decided to only go camping and climbing for a few days and spend the rest of the time in Tokyo, going to Fuji-Q amusement park, and visiting Yokohama.

Before everyone else arrived, I checked out the Sakura park celebrations and Harujuku. Once he arrived, I learned that all of his ideas (that I mentioned in a previous post) were all from watching Terrace House.

The first night we stayed in a Capsule Hotel. It was a very clean experience, but a bit noisy. Kyle said that the men’s floor was a snoring symphony. I liked that they give you PJ’s to wear so you don’t even need to open your bag. Overall, my experience was good and I would do it again if I was on a budget. Maybe if you stayed at a slightly more expensive one, then you would have less chances of getting woken up?

In those first 24 hours, we walked around Shinjuku, ate soba and teishoku, and visited the super arsty Sumida aquarium.

Sakura Allergy Season + Fuji-Q Planning Day + Okutama BBQ Trip

The Okutama region to Tokyo is like the Squamish region to Vancouver. The major difference is that you can take a train right to the camping and climbing, and it runs every 45 minutes. I wish Squamish had a train because taking the train was the best.

The bouldering in Okutama was beautiful and extremely slippery. We had fancy bbqs with wagyu beef and fish. We rented a hilariously tiny cabin. I spent A LOT of time asking Eileen and Jeff about their day at Fuji-Q amusement park because I was planning on going in a few days, and the park is notorious for having really long lines. I have wanted to go there since I was a kid (and Nagashima amusement park) so I made an elaborate plan.

I started having crazy allergy/cold symptoms while were in Okutama, and also a little bit worse than the allergy/cold symptoms I was getting in Fukuoka. My stomach was feeling a bit mehhhh, but ok overall.

After two nights, the group departed and we all went our separate ways. That was sad. Eileen and Jeff are now in Australia, Mariko and Phil are back in Niseko and Lindsay and Jace are now in Utah.

The Last Supper

Kyle and I took the train back to Shinagawa and checked into our hotel. We checked out Shibuya Crossing and we ate at a standing sushi restaurant and a ramen place. We then took the subway back to our hotel…. and from then onwards is where the final name of the trip was developed:

TOKYO TOILET TOUR 2018

If you are ever travelling and have the flu, gastrointestinal distress, and/or food poisoning, Tokyo is your dream city. There are bathrooms in every subway station, every konbini, every restaurant, and each floor of every store. And I went to all of them, and they were all very nice, free and clean.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to go to Fuji-Q or a bunch of other places I planned because I was busy with urgent matters.

I did drag myself to a few places like the Cup Noodles Museum (did you know they have 2 bathrooms?), the Shinagawa Aquarium in the hotel (did you know they have 3 bathrooms and 1 bathroom in between our hotel room and the entrance gates? ps how was the dolphin show? I missed it because I was in the bathroom), the doctor, and the mega Tokyu Hands store (did you know they have 7 bathrooms?).

I was also able to put my months of Japanese practise to use: TOIRE DOKO DESU KA??!?!?!?! TOIRE DOKO DESU KA??!?!?!?!

Big thanks to Kyle for a) waiting for me while I was in every bathroom in Tokyo, b) not complaining about me being a terrible person to room with in a tiny hotel room, and c) bringing me electrolytes.

I was soooooooooo anxious about flying back to Vancouver (what if there is turbulence and I can’t get to the bathroom?), but it turned out okay. PHHHAAEWFFF. I mean, PFFFT.

I hope you all enjoyed reading about my time in Tokyo.

Sincerely,

Toire-san

fukuoka

After visiting Central Hokkaido, I flew to Fukuoka to meet up with Kota, my friend from New Zealand. Fukuoka is the major city on Kyushu island (the Southern large island of Japan).

Kota and I hadn’t seen each other in 5 years! We had not stayed in good contact so we had a lot to catch up on. I stayed at his parents house and was spoiled with many delicious meals and Go lessons (thank you for letting me stay!!)

I loved the houses in Fukuoka as they were all the traditional-style houses with thatched roofs. Also, it was warm out!

We had 3 days to look around, so we divided it into 3 themes:

• FOREST: A shrine, calligraphy exhibit, mochi, steamed buns

https://www.instagram.com/p/BiOI2DTh5-u/?taken-by=reirameso

• BEACH: Beach, onsen, watching sumo

• CITY: Sakura, chicken hot pot, shopping, craft beer

 

 

central hokkaido

I took a mini-road trip to Central Hokkaido with Dee, Eileen and Jeff after the season end and I recovered from bartending at the restaurant closing party. The customers we had at the restaurant was about 50% guests and 50% ski instructors from the nearby resort. Ski instructors like to party.

We skied at Teine Resort (near Sapporo) and Furano Resort. It was really great seeing a tiny part of Central Hokkaido. The group got really sick of me saying “I COULD LIVE HERE” every time we drove through a new town.

Teine is where they held some/all of the 1972 Winter Olympics. The resort was pretty big and much better set up than Niseko. I could live in Sapporo (look at that ocean and mountain access!). This is the view of Sapporo from Teine Resort:

Furano resort was really great and had really great backcountry access. I can’t remember that much about Furano other than the fact that I said I could live in Furano every 4 minutes.

There is wayyyy more that I want to check out in Central Hokkaido, including the steam vents on Asahidake. Unfortunately, the weather was not good enough for me to go so the group went without me (sad face) as I took the bus to the Sapporo Airport.

Jeff’s Photo (I did not go here)

Eternal thanks to Jeff, Eileen and Ayami for bringing my ski gear back to Niseko, re-packing it and shipping it to the Tokyo airport. This saved me quite a few $$$.

party season

The end of the 2017-2018 Hokkaido season hit FAST. As soon as March 1st rolled around, a bunch of people had already left, the rain hit hard and the tourists left. It was time for the staff to relax and have some fun. We had a ton of parties including an all you can drink/all you can eat korean bbq meal, a helicopter tour, a big izakaya dinner, a staff dinner plus karaoke session, a restaurant closing party and an eat-everything-that-was-left-behind-in-the-fridge party.

Here are a few photos that were taken by others. Here are the staff:

We flew into the Mt Yotei crater in the helicopter. It was extremely bumpy going in and out of the crater.

And here is a one last picture of the glide cracks that were forming in the spring:

higashiyama neighbourhood tour

A few people have asked me to give a neighbourhood tour. Here are the highlights:

Your first feeling once you enter Higashiyama Village/Niseko Village is probably confusion, due to the flashing light intersection on the main road. Is it a four-way stop? Does one road have right of way? Yes, there are accidents here all the time.

As you drive up the road, on your right you will pass Milk Kobo. Lots of tour buses and tourists stop here to sample all of their dairy-based baked goods. I would recommend their drinking yogurt and their roll cake.

One driveway further is a restaurant called Prativo. Prativo has a good value vegetable lunch buffet, which I would frequent every few weeks to prevent myself from getting scurvy.

Opposite Prativo is the Hokkaido Backcountry Club where you can rent backcountry equipment.

As you go further up, you’ll pass the Mexican Mule which has a weekly trivia night, which I forgot to go to the entire season even though I live right beside it. Oops.

At this point, the road splits. The bus stop to Hirafu and Annapuri is also here (free if you have a seasons pass, hour pass or an active day pass). If you go down the left road, near Snow Dog hotel, there is a really cool bar that is made out of a shipping container. I’m not sure what it is called. Would recommend.

Back on the main road, before you veer to the right, you will pass Black Diamond Lodge and Restaurant which has the best staff, and the best waitresses, and the best food, and one of the only English speaking car rental companies. (Hi)

Past Black Diamond Lodge, you can get to Banzai Chair, which is the first access point to Niseko Village Resort. The Banzai Chair opens later than the gondola, so it is usually worth making the trek to the gondola. You can ride Banzai chair for free to get to the ticket booth at the gondola. There is a big parking lot here.

At the end of the road, you will reach the Hilton. There is a big parking lot at the Hilton as well. This is where the gondola starts and where the ticket booth is. The Hilton has an onsen which I never bothered to go in because tourists.

And that’s all! There are a few other restaurants and hotels, but they aren’t really worth mentioning.